The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for data-processing employing a flat coordinate-input device, in which scrolling operations can be continuously performed with less number of operations.
Nowadays pointing devices, such as a mouse and a track ball, are widely used to interface with data-processing apparatuses including computers.
Similarly, a flat coordinate-input device typified by a track pad and a touch pad provide useful features as the pointing device. With a touch pad, a user slides a finger or a pen on the surface of the touch pad to move the cursor or the pointer shown on a display.
When the touch pad is employed, the screen is scrolled up or down by the procedures below, basically the same as is the case of using a mouse.
1) the user""s finger sliding on the touch pad moves the pointer onto a scroll box or a scroll button of a scroll bar.
2) the touch-pad is tapped, for example , and the scroll button or scroll bar, which is under drag-operation, is moved.
3) the scroll is performed according to the movement of the scroll button or scroll bar which is under drag-operation.
A flat coordinate-input device, in which its surface has an area dedicated to scrolling the image on the display regardless of the pointer, is introduced. In such a flat coordinate-input device, the user slides a finger or the like within the predetermined area on the flat coordinate input device. The sliding operation performs the scroll corresponding to displacement of the finger.
The predetermined area dedicated to scrolling may be disposed at lengthwise and widthwise edges of the surface. In this case, the user operates the lengthwise edge for the lengthwise scroll, and operates the widthwise edge for the widthwise scroll.
In the conventional flat coordinate-input device, however, the scrolling operation has been limited in the predetermined area in the device. Furthermore, the amount of scrolling is proportional to the displacement of the finger or the like. Under the constraints, when the scroll is continuously performed, the user has to repeatedly make the scrolling operation within the limited area in the device. The operation with constraints may not be user-friendly.
The apparatus of the present invention includes a) a flat coordinate-input unit, b) a coordinate-information acquiring unit, c) a coordinate-information storage unit, d) an angle calculator, e) a scroll-information generator, and f) a scroll unit.
(a) the flat coordinate-input unit inputs coordinates into the apparatus.
(b) the coordinate-information acquiring unit acquires coordinate-information including the coordinate fed from the flat coordinate-input unit.
(c) the coordinate-information storage unit stores in sequence the coordinate-information.
(d) the angle calculator calculates an angle defined by a first displacement-vector and a second displacement-vectorxe2x80x94where, the first displacement-vector represents a displacement from the coordinate given by a second coordinate information to the coordinate given by a first coordinate information; the second displacement-vector represents a displacement from the coordinate given by a third coordinate information to the coordinate given by the second coordinate information. In the calculation above, the newest information is stored as the first coordinate information, and the information acquired previous to the newest is stored as the second coordinate information, similarly, the information acquired previous to the second is stored as the third coordinate information.
(e) the scroll-information generator determines the direction of scroll according to the angle calculated above, and determines the amount of scroll according to the first-displacement vector, thereby generating scroll information.
(f) the scroll unit performs the scroll according to the scroll information above.
In this way, the scrolling operation can be continued on any given coordinates on the coordinate-input unit. Besides, a desired amount of scrolling can be obtained with no regard to the coordinate representing the center of rotating operation or distance of finger sliding. This provides the user with simple and speedy scrolling.
The data-processing apparatus of the present invention further includes a coordinate-information updating unit.
In the process of acquiring coordinate information by the coordinate-information acquiring unit, the coordinate-information updating unit deletes the oldest one in the coordinate information stored in the coordinate-information storage unit and then adds another coordinate-information that is newly acquired by the coordinate-information acquiring unit.
The process above allows the user to continuously perform the scroll.
Furthermore, the apparatus of the present invention includes a scroll mode-setting unit, which sets the operation mode on the coordinate-input unit. This allows the user to easily switch between the scrolling operation and other operations to the operation surface.
According to the present invention, when the coordinate-information storage unit stores coordinate-information in which the fourth coordinate-information is acquired previous to the third coordinate-information, the scroll-information generator changes the direction of scroll depending on whether or not the line having the second coordinate and the first coordinate thereon crosses the line that connects the third coordinate and the center point of the circle having the second, third, and fourth coordinates thereon.
Through the process in the scroll-information generator, the direction of scrolling is changed with no interference in the scrolling operation.
The data-processing method of the present invention includes the steps of:
(a) inputting a coordinate.
(b) acquiring coordinate-information including the input coordinate.
(c) storing in sequence the coordinate information into a memory.
(d) calculating an angle defined by a first displacement-vector and a second displacement-vectorxe2x80x94where, i) the first displacement-vector represents a displacement from the coordinate given by the second coordinate information to the coordinate given by the first coordinate information; the second displacement-vector represents a displacement from the coordinate given by the third coordinate information to the coordinate given by the second coordinate information; and ii) the newest information is stored as the first coordinate information, and the information acquired previous to the newest is stored as the second coordinate information, similarly, the information acquired previous to the second is stored as the third coordinate information.
(e) determining the direction of scrolling according to the angle calculated above and the amount of scrolling according to the first-displacement vector, thereby generating scroll information
(f) performing the scroll according to the scroll information generated above.